San Jose Bike Party Hosts Third Annual Ladies Ride

Relaxed and Fun Ride Encourages More Women to Ride Bicycles 

San Jose, Calif.—San Jose Bike Party is hosting a special Ladies Ride on Saturday, July 14 at 5 p.m. The Ladies Ride is an annual event organized each summer specifically for female bike riders. Ladies of all riding backgrounds are encouraged to attend, as the pace of the ride will be relaxed. The route is approximately 15 miles through the streets of San Jose.

"Our goal with the Ladies Ride is to eliminate the gender gap in bicycle riding, where we see more en riding than women," said Katie Heaney, a Ladies Ride and Bike Party volunteer. "We hear from any women that they feel uncomfortable riding on city streets. With this ride, we're showing women that bike riding is fun, social, a great way to exercise, and can be low-stress if we find the right routes. That's what Bike Party did for me, and now I hope the Ladies Ride will get more women on bikes every day."

When: Saturday July 14, 5 p.m.
Where: Downtown San Jose, Start Location to be announced
More Info: www.sjbikeparty.org

San Jose Bike Clinic
San Jose Bike Clinic will assist Ladies Ride participants with bicycle maintenance and roadside assistance. San Jose Bike Clinic, which will be coming soon to a location in downtown San Jose, is an educational organization that is associated with the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. The mission of the San Jose Bike Clinic is to provide a shared space for bicycle repair and education and to build a robust and diverse cycling community in San Jose. For more information visit www.sjbikeclinic.org.

About San Jose Bike Party 
The San Jose Bike Party mission is to “build community through cycling.” They achieve that mission by facilitating a monthly bike ride that is open to all riders in the bay area. This ride takes place every month on the third Friday of each month. The rides often include thousands of riders on many different types of bikes. Bike Party riders are instructed to follow traffic laws, such as stopping at red lights and not blocking cars. For more information visit www.sjbikeparty.org.

From Animal House to Our House: A Love Story

Tomorrow preservationist and DIY hero Ron Tanner will be performing his one-man show at The San Jose Woman's Club on July 2nd at 7:00pm, and at The Booksmith on July 3rd at 7:30pm. Ron's book FROM ANIMAL HOUSE TO OUR HOUSE: A LOVE STORY tells how he and his wife bought a ruined frat house and -- not knowing anything about renovation -- restored the house to its original Victorian glory. Their work was featured in THIS OLD HOUSE magazine in 2008.

The Preservation Action Council of San Jose, The San Jose Woman's Club, The Victorian Alliance of San Francisco, and The California Preservation Foundation are co-hosting these events to raise awareness about preserving the great architectural heritage of San Jose and San Francisco.

Ron's presentation (with a slide show) is hilarious and awe-inspiring and is drawing a wide audience from preservationists, DIYers, old house lovers, inspiration-seekers, and romantics. The trailer for the show is below:

Vocera IPO

I know this is a bit of old news, but I have to many any San Jose-based IPOs. Vocera is mobile medical communications specialist that raised $94 million in their IPO late March. Unlike Facebook, their stock has actually been performing well. They were expecting stocks to initially trade at $12-14 per share, and the first day closed at $16. Now, a mere quarter later their stock is trading over 50% higher than their IPO debut.

Hopefully we'll see many more successful San Jose IPOs this year.

Source: SJBJ

Silicon Valley Reality Show

Finally, a reality show I might actually watch. Mark Zuckerberg's sister, Randi, is one of the co-producers of  this new show about to hit Bravo. The premise is simple. "Silicon Valley" will chronicle the lives of young local entrepreneurs that aspire to become the next Steve Jobs, Larry Page / Sergey Brin, or Mark Zuckerberg. I am hoping this will be far more interesting than watching bored housewives spend their husbands' money or cooking competitions to see who can make the best catfish ice cream.


It's about time we have a reality show about something that actually matters. Entrepreneurs are the people that have the ability to literally change the world. The only way to permanently increase the standard of living across the globe is through innovation. Anything else is just redistributing money from one party to another. Fortunately for us, we happen to be right in the heart of innovation and finally there is going to be a TV show to share with the world exactly how exciting our entrepreneurial ecosystem can be.


Source: VentureBeat

San Jose Creatives Blog

I stumbled upon this blog recently where creative folks from San Jose are interviewed. Each week they feature a different artist, designer, musician, craftsman, etc. They ask the same 13 questions to each interviewee in order to see what makes each "creative" unique.

Check out the San Jose Creatives Blog over here.

Wednesday Wishlist: San Jose Grizzlies

It looks like San Jose could have another shot at a NBA team. Robert Pera, a billionaire who founded San Jose's Ubiquiti Networks, purchased the Memphis Grizzlies a couple weeks ago. I believe this is the same team that Larry Ellison tried to buy and move to San Jose.

While Robert Pera hasn't given any indication that he would like to move the team, I think it is definitely in the realm of possibility that he'll want them closer to home when their current lease expires. The HP Pavilion is already capable of supporting an NBA team so many of the hassles other Bay Area sports teams are facing with moving (A's, 49ers, Warriors, etc.) would not apply. No new construction, votes, or territory disputes would exist to impede a move.

The Bay Area can definitely support two NBA teams, so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that Pera will one day make this happen!

Source: The Sale Lake Tribune

Downtown San Jose Bags Grocery Outlet

An anchor retail spot next to City Hall has been leased! Grocery Outlet is filling the void that Albertsons and Su Vianda left behind at 272 E. Santa Clara Street. They are signing a 10 year lease on the 24,000sqft space and plan to open as soon as the end of 2012.

Having easy access to groceries is a key selling point to getting more residents and residential developments Downtown. By the end of 2012, The San Pedro Square Market will also become a viable grocer since it will have a butcher shop, cheese shop, and potentially a bakery in addition to Veggie Box (which is stellar by the way) and two farmer's markets a week. Then in 2014 the long wait for Whole Foods will finally come to an end. 

With four anchor grocers Downtown (five if you include Trader Joe's in the San Jose Market Center), we'll be in great shape for residential expansion.

Source: SJBJ

New Downtown San Jose Project: Illuminating Downtown

San Jose has received a $600k grant from ArtPlace--a national organization that funds art projects--in order to build something that could potentially be incredibly cool. The project is called Illuminating Downtown and the goal is to light up parts of Downtown using art and technology. The initial focus areas will include SoFA, San Pedro Square, and Santa Clara St. & 87. The first project will be on Santa Clara St. and is expected to be installed by Winter 2013. If any of these projects will be in similar scale to The 88's interactive light feature, they can't come soon enough.

If anyone has additional info on this, please post in the comments. Thanks!

Source: SJBJ